It is with regret that I have offered Glengarriff GAA Club my Resignation Letter as I feel that at this time the direction in which the Club is going with regards to some items and the time being spent on them that I have no further contribution to make as I feel the direction is the total opposite to the spirit of the GAA and the voluntary ethos it portrays.

I have been the Chairman for the past three years and for me it has been a very special time as this was my first managerial position in any club situation and I feel that I myself developed my own character and skills and hopefully was able to pass this on to the younger generation.

Thirty years ago I left Adrigole GAA Club when I was playing Senior Football with them and joined this new Club and I must say that the last three years as Chairman made it all worthwhile as I was really honored to be a part of the success of the Club both on and off the field. I also feel that further success can be achieved provided that the focus is totally on the Glengarriff Club as the one and only areas that we can obtain success lies within the hills and bogs of Glengarriff and not an inch further. In Committee meetings every minute spent discussing other Clubs and their problems was a minute lost to progressing and developing our own Club with regards to the services we hopefully provide to the local community.

This year I was totally disappointed with Beara’s view on the new Western Division which involved teams from Beara, Carbery and West Muskerry which I feel really deprived our underage teams in playing good meaningful competition but I have no doubt that in the near future this will be discussed again as the number of underage teams in Beara is falling rather than increasing.

Over the past three years I have taken approximately 2000 photographs and looking back through these and seeing the laughter and smiles on the faces of the youngsters really proves the contribution a local GAA Club can make if the simple values can be respected.Looking at these photographs, this is where the strength and the future of the Club lies and I would hope that moving forward people do realise that the focus is not lost on external issues which has no bearing to the Club’s progress.

I was very fortunate to be involved in our trips to Croke Park and elsewhere in the past years as I feel that some of these youngsters would never have got the opportunity to do these things and when parents were very appreciative of this, it made it all worthwhile.Some people in the Club would advise that a Chairman be strong but at present I leave a relatively small Club that will have a Junior ‘A’ and ‘B’ team, 15 Aside under 21 team , Minors, Under 16, 14, 12, 10’s etc., which I think is a great tribute to the direction the Club went in the past years, as Clubs much greater in size than ours would not be in a position to field this amount of teams. Alternatively, I could have been a “dictator” or a “bully” with the result that I would leave with possibly very few teams operating in the Club if this had been so. When you depend on the voluntary contribution and commitment of people in a small community this needs to be done with respect and diplomacy as it will affect the membership of any organisation.

To the Players and Members I would thank you for your support and the respect which I received and I would hope you will not judge my decision too harshly. My first loyalty was always to this club and worked only for the benefit of our players/members but at this time I feel that the way in which the Club seems to be going is against my views and ideas for the onward progression of this small Club.

My predecessor also left after one year and now I leave after three years which would indicate that all is not as it should be and my biggest weakness was that I was not able to get more members on the Committee as this is a vital working part of ours and any Club.

Again, the last three years with the Club were a pleasure and a privilege to be Chairman and going forward I wish you every success as there is so much that can be achieved and further enjoyment can be had without any great success and that should be the real value of the Club at the end of the day.